The deal would value the business at about 1.15 billion
euros ($1.6 billion), the firm said in a statement today. The
founding Savare family plans to keep 10 percent of the unit,
whose security and identification technology is used in the
mobile telecommunications, payment and transport industries.

“We want to help the company grow internationally in
emerging markets like Brazil, as well as in countries like the
U.S. where smartcards could be more developed,” Pascal Stefani,
head of Advent in France, said in an interview.

The business provides smartcards used in mobile phones and
credit cards and had sales of about 713 million euros last year,
or more than 70 percent of Oberthur’s revenue. Advent, which
manages 6.6 billion euro buyout fund, had vied for the unit with
private-equity firms such as Bain Capital LLC and PAI Partners,
people familiar with the matter said in June.

The transaction requires workers’ council consultation and
is subject to the approval of market authorities, Advent said.
The buyout firm plans to use debt equivalent to 4.5 times the
unit’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization to help fund the deal, Stefani said.

Barclays Plc, Lloyds Banking Group Plc and Royal Bank of
Canada are arranging debt financing. HSBC Holdings Plc is
advising Advent on the acquisition and Rothschild is advising
Oberthur.

Banknote Acquisitions?

Oberthur is seeking to boost its banknote business through
acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer Thomas Savare said this
year. The French company, based near Paris, made an indicative
896 million-pound ($1.5 billion) cash offer for Britain’s De La
Rue Plc, the largest printer of banknotes, in December.

De La Rue rebuffed the approach and Oberthur abandoned its
pursuit in January. Under the U.K.’s so-called put-up-or-shut-up
rule, the French company was barred from making another attempt
to buy the U.K. printer for six months after that.